ERIC EJ1075470: Relationship between Teachers' Job Satisfaction and Their Attitudes towards Students' Beliefs and Motivation

2015·0.22 MB·English

by  ERIC

English Language Teaching; Vol. 8, No. 7; 2015
ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
Relationship between Teachers’ Job Satisfaction and Their Attitudes
towards Students’ Beliefs and Motivation
Hadi Salehi1, Elham Taghavi1 & Melor Md Yunus2
1 English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan,
Iran
2 Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Correspondence: Hadi Salehi, English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]

Received: March 2, 2015 Accepted: April 3, 2015 Online Published: June 29, 2015
doi:10.5539/elt.v8n7p46 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n7p46

Abstract
Many studies have been done in the developed countries due to the importance of job satisfaction; however, only
a limited number of studies have been conducted on teachers’ job satisfaction in Iran. This study is an attempt to
investigate the relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards students’ beliefs and
motivation.To this end, both qualitative and quantitative research methods including interview protocols and
questionnaire were utilized. To collect data, in the quantitative part of the study, a validated questionnaire was
administered to sample of 340 among the English teachers, teaching in Iranian language institutes in Isfahan.
After gathering the questionnaires, those teachers willing to be interviewed were selected for in-depth interview.
Both quantitative and qualitative data were categorized, coded and analyzed based upon the main themes and the
respective research questions. The results revealed that there are empirically positive significant relationships
(t > 2.56, P < 0.001) between teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes toward students’ motivation and
beliefs. Moreover, the interviews showed that teachers’ level ofjob satisfaction was high, although they are not
satisfied with financial matters. The finding can shed more light on the area of teachers’ job satisfaction and
related factors to have better understanding of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance.
Furthermore, educational institutions through considering the results of the study can improve teachers’
perceptions of their job and improve job environment to manage language learning institutes or schools better
than before.
Keywords: attitudes, beliefs, motivation, teachers’ attitudes toward learners, teachers’ job satisfaction
1. Introduction
In recent years, more and more people around the world are in need of acquiring a higher level of competence in
the learning English as a second or foreign language, making the English language teaching profession one of
the popular careers. According to Kozloski (2002) although extrinsic rewards such as payment or positive
teacher evaluation was involved and supportive, it was the intrinsic motivation that played more important role
and was responsible for teachers’ motivation. Although a growing interest in teacher job satisfaction in the field
of EFL/ESL developed quickly during the last two decades, assessing levels of job satisfaction among teachers
has increased because of growing trend of qualified teachers leaving the teaching profession for reasons other
than retirement (Ingersoll, 2003). If foreign language teachers can be supported, in some ways, to understand
where they stand, and if they can stand there with dignity, security, satisfaction, then all schools students and
communities, can benefit and meet targets of policy planning (Papastamatis, 2009). Therefore, the goal of this
study is to extent our knowledge about teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards their learner through
investigating the teachers’ perceptions of their overall job satisfaction and exploring the way teachers see their
students’ beliefs and motivation to learn English as second language.
2. Literature Review
Some studies indicated that job satisfaction is connected with teachers’ sense of efficacy (Currall, Towler, Judge,
& Kohn, 2005). Therefore, when teachers have high perception of their professional job quality, they also have
positive attitudes towards teaching, as an achievement factor. As Drake (2002) assumed, teachers’ skills and
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effectiveness are likely to be changed over time so that providing more professional development opportunities
to increase teachers’ skills and self-efficacy can be helpful to reduce the level of job stress and as a result
increase satisfaction from teaching.
Cranny, Smith, and Stone tried to find out the various ways that job satisfaction was define in 1992. Their
analysis, finally, help the researchers define job satisfaction as “an affective (that is, emotional) reaction to one’s
job, resulting from the incumbent’s comparison of actual outcomes with those that are desired (expected,
deserved, and so on)” (p. 1). One of the most significant in the issue was the Hawthorne studies, leading up to
the promotion of job satisfaction (Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1939). The goal of these studies, conducting at
Harvard Business School from 1924 to 1933, was to find out how different conditions such as illumination can
affect the workers’ productivity. The result of the studies showed that changes in conditions and work context
temporarily lead in increasing workers’ productivity.
Hong Goo (2011) pointed out that job satisfaction is also worth consideration from a humanitarian perspective.
In other words, it has a great impact on employees’ health. Satisfied workers are likely to live for longer time
and are healthier (Faragher, Cooper, & Cass, 2002; Fisher & Sousa-Poza, 2009). An important finding for
organizations to note is that job satisfaction has a rather tenuous correlation to productivity on the job. In line
with Hong Goo (2011), although the accessible research has not consistently shown a relationship between job
satisfaction and job performance, several studies (Bowling, 2007; Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001)
recommended that there is a positive relationship between overall job satisfaction and job performance. Such
results are fundamental for researchers and businesses, as the idea that satisfaction and job performance are
directly linked to one another is often cited in the media and in some non-academic management text.
Contrary to many studies done, Hackman and Oldham (1980), Maslow (1954), and Herzberg et al. (1959) are
pioneering studies that provoke more studies in the field. Teachers’ job satisfaction questionnaire (TJSQ) using
to measure job satisfaction was developed from studies done by Maslow and Herzberg in 1954. TJSQ is, in fact,
taxonomy to introduce the involving factors. According to Hackman and Oldham’ studies in 1980, if job
characteristics of task identify, task significance, skill variety, autonomy and feedback increased, feedback
results will be in a more positive psychological state. The employees’ organizations are the beneficiary of having
a positive influence on work outcome such as increasing the level of job satisfaction, motivation and work
effectiveness. Based on Hackman and Oldham’sresults if teachers find their work meaningful or beware of
results of work, their work efficiency would increase.
Teaching professions similar to other jobs is authorized by the intentional attempt made by teachers (Townsend
& Bates, 2007). As there can be a strong relationship between teachers’ perception of English language as a job,
they make endeavourer to improve not only their standards but also the quality of the job. So researchers tend to
feel concern about the situation (Johnston, 1997). According to Caprara (2003) job satisfaction is “decisive
element” that has strong effects on teachers’ attitudes and even performance (p. 823). Similarly job satisfaction
is very significant fact resulted from self-efficacy.
Attention to the students and teachers’ beliefs has been always an important educational inquiry and a focus of
educational research. For example, Kern (1995) discussed the significance of belief about language learning
through comparing learners’ belief at different institution and with those of their teachers. Investigating change
in students’ beliefs in relation to those of their teachers was another matter of his interest; in order to develop
hypotheses about the potential influence of teachers’ beliefs on students’ beliefs. According to him, results were
found to be significantly affected by the type of analysis: global analyses of group and analyses of individuals
and course section groups.
In the regard of learners and teachers’ motivation, Bernaus and Wilson (2008) investigated the relationship
between student motivation and achievement in English and its relation to their teacher motivation and strategy
use in the classroom. Research participants were 31 teachers in Catalonia (Spain) and the 694 students in their
classes. The results of the study suggested that teachers’ motivation is related to their use of motivating strategies,
which are related to student motivation and English achievement. Thus, any changes in the educational system
that promotes higher levels of teacher motivation should result in improved levels of education of the students
(Bernaus & Wilson, 2008).
According to teachers, they are satisfied when working with students, or seeing students’ continual
accomplishments (Cockburn & Haydn, 2004). Evans and Ingersoll (2001) assumed that there is a connection
between leaving the profession and feeling dissatisfied. Moreover, Liu and Ramsey (2008) mentioned that one of
the greatest factors affecting teachers’ job satisfaction is stress, which is the consequence of poor work condition
as well as the amount of time for planning preparing materials to teach. That is inadequate time and heavy
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teaching leads to reduce the level of job satisfaction. Considering the key role of teachers in deciding on
standards at schools and providing children with necessities through which they can be successful. We need to
know more about the most important methods that teachers use to assist their learners’ academic goals.
In the regard of teacher-student relationships Veldman (2005) studied a development of teacher-student
relationships and teachers’ job satisfaction throughout the careers of four veteran teachers who retained high job
satisfaction. Teachers’ job satisfaction appeared positively related to the self-reported quality of the
teacher-student relationships. Positive retrospective teacher perceptions did not always coincide with positive
student perceptions. The researchers found that teachers might have positive job satisfaction despite, in the eyes
of the students, a poor teacher-student relationship. In Iran like other countries, many studies considering the
importance of Iranian learners’ beliefs and motivation and their behavior (Papi & Abollahzadeh, 2012), and
teachers’ job satisfaction (Nojani, Arjmandnia, Afrooz, & Rajabi, 2012; Zainalipour, Sheikhi, & Mirkamali,
2010) have been done. Still conducting researches regarding teachers’ job satisfaction and its relation with other
key factors such as students’ beliefs and motivation is essential.
Considering the importance of the learners’ and teachers’ belief systems to our understanding of language
learning/teaching as well as job satisfaction and productivity on the job, the study aims to find this possible
relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards students’ beliefs and motivation. More
precisely the study tried:
 To investigate the probable relationship between EFL teachers’ job satisfaction, and their attitudes towards
students’ beliefs,
 To explore the probable relationship between EFL teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards
students’ motivation,
 To examine the teachers’ perceptions of their overall job satisfaction.
So the study seeks answers to the following questions:
1) Is there a significant relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards students’
beliefs about learning English?
2) Is there asignificantrelationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards students’
motivation in learning English?
3) How do English teachers perceive the overall level of their job satisfaction?
3. Method
3.1 Participants
Participants of the study were English teachers who had their BA, MA, or PhD degree; teaching in Iranian
language institutes in Isfahan. The participants were both female and male teachers (81female, 128male) who
had various years of experience (from a year to 10years and above). They were selected from at least seven
language institutes; as in the study, gender was not considered a determining factor in choosing the participants.
3.2 Instruments
In the study, both questionnaires and interviews were utilized to collect the required data. Questionnaire was
used to gain quantitative data and interviews were used to help the researcher obtain the qualitative data needed
for the study to expand the detail learned from the quantitative section.
3.2.1 Teachers’ Questionnaire
The purpose of this questionnaire was to investigate the probable relationship between EFL teachers’ job
satisfaction, and their attitudes towards students’ beliefs, and motivation. It consisted of two parts to provide the
researcher with an overall teachers’ job satisfaction and their students’ beliefs and motivation for learning
English as a foreign language. The teacher’s questionnaire was developed in Englishand by the researchers. It
was piloted on 60 English teachers and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated. The Cronbach’s alpha value
for all the variables exceeded the minimum required value of 0.7 and hence, the scale of variables is highly
reliable.

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Table 1. The results of the reliability test
Variables No. of items Mean Cronbach’s Alpha
Beliefs 15 3.56 0.860
Motivation 15 3.57 0.889
Job Satisfaction 15 3.57 0.821

As shown in Table 1, the Cronbach’s alpha value for all the variables exceeded the minimum required value of
0.7 and hence, the scale of variables is highly reliable.
3.2.2 Interview
The second tool for gathering information was interview protocol. Interview, the qualitative portion in this study,
is used to gain further or supplemental information that the quantitative method, that is questionnaire, cannot
disclosed. While teachers’ questionnaire gave a general understanding as to investigate the relationship between
EFL teachers’ job satisfaction and their attitudes towards students’ beliefs and motivation, teachers’ interviews
provided information that is more detailed. The purpose of the interview questions was to probe more deeply
Iranian English teachers’ perceptions of their overall job satisfaction.
3.3 Procedure
Three hundred and fortyquestionnaires were distributed among the English teachers, teaching in different
English language institutes in Isfahan. Since it was a part of the institutes’ condition to allow the researchers
collect data, the details of the institutes are kept anonymous in all reports generated from the data. After 20 days,
233 questionnaires were collected; however, 24 questionnaires were discarded from the analysis process due to
the major data-missing problem and only 209 questionnaires were considered for data entry and data analysis
procedures. All English teachers who had already participated in the survey were invited for the interview;
however, only six males and three females were willing to be interviewed. All performed interviews were
recorded and transcribed so that the risk of missing the interviewees’ comments wasreduced. Finally, the
transcribed interviews were organized, coded and analyzed.
4. Results
The data was tabulated and calculations were made through SPSS, version 19 and AMOS. The analysis of
qualitative part of the study, which involved personal interviews with teachers, started after collecting the
qualitative data because the collected information were fresh in the researcher’s mind. The recordings were
transcribed and the observation notes were rewritten as an opportunity for analysis.
4.1 Data Analysis (Quantitative Part)
The first part consisted of four items of teacher personal characteristics related to demographic information
including gender, age, academic qualifications, and years of teaching experience. As shown in Table 2, the
majority of the respondents were male constituting 61.2 percent of the samples.

Table 2. Respondents’ gender profiles
Gender Frequency Percent
Female 81 38.8
Male 128 61.2

Table 3 also illustrates the participants’ educational level. As shown, most of the respondents had graduated
masters degree (N = 115, 55%), followed by bachelors’ degree holders (N = 66, 31.6%) and only 13.4 percent
had PhD.

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Table 3. Respondents’ education level
Education Frequency Percent
Bachelors 66 31.6
Masters 115 55.00
PhD 28 13.4

According to Table 4, most of the participants had 1-3 years of work experience (N = 178, 85.2%), followed by
those having 7-9 years of experience in teaching English (N = 14, 6.7%). The least number of teaching
experience were those who had more than 10 years of experience (N = 4, 1.9%).

Table 4. Respondents’ years of work experience
Experience Frequency Percent
1-3 years 178 85.2
4-6 years 13 6.2
7-9 years 14 6.7
10 years and above 4 1.9

As shown in Table 5, most of the respondents had university education in English major (N = 69, 58.5%).

Table 5. Respondents’ major
Frequency Percent Mean
English 69 58.5
1.58
Other Majors 49 41.5

4.1.1 Data Missing and Normality
After the demographic analysis, data missing check was conducted to make sure that the data set is complete.
Eighteen questionnaires were found to partially have missing data, each with 1-2 items. Since the missing data
portion is below 10%, replacement method was done and an average of the next and before question items was
calculated and replaced in the missing data. This approach is consistent with Hair et al. (2010). Furthermore,
items 34,37,40,44 were designed in such a way to have reverse answers with other similar items. Before the
analysis is started, respondents’ answers for these questions were coded reversely, as outlined by Hair et al.
(2010).

Table 6. Results of normality test
Beliefs Motivation Job Satisfaction
Skewness -0.54 -0.49 -0.50
Std. Error of Skewness 0.22 0.22 0.22
z-value -2.44 -2.21 -2.26
Kurtosis 0.24 0.87 0.32
Std. Error of Kurtosis 0.44 0.44 0.44
z-value 0.54 1.97 0.73

In the next step, the assumption of normal distribution was examined. Table 6 shows the results of the normal
distribution test. As shown, the z-value results for the skweness and kurtosis are in the range of -2.56 and +2.56,
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as outlined by Hair et al. (2010). This implies that the distribution is normal and there is no violation if normal
distribution for this data set.
4.1.2 Reliability and Validity Tests
As mentioned, before the data is collected, the developed questionnaire was given to two academicians for their
comments and opinions and the amendments were done based on their suggestions and comments. This ensures
the content and face validity of the scale. After that, a reliability test was utilized, using Cronbach’s alpha
technique.

Table 7. The results of the reliability test
Variables No. of items Mean Cronbach’s Alpha
Beliefs 15 3.56 0.860
Motivation 15 3.57 0.889
Job Satisfaction 15 3.57 0.821

As shown in Table 7, the Cronbach’s alpha value for all the variables exceeded the minimum required value of
0.7 and hence, the scale of variables is highly reliable.
4.1.3 Validation Procedure
To examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the questionnaire, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
technique was applied and the parameters were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE)
technique using AMOS 5. Before testing the validity, the model goodness-of-fit was examined using different
model fit indices proposed by Liu, Marchewka, Lu, and Yu (2004). These measures are the ratio of Chi-square
(χ2) to degrees of freedom (d.f.), adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI), non-normalized fit index (NNFI), root mean
square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI) and root mean square residual (RMSR).
During this process, the items 7, 11 to 19, 28 to 33, and 39- 45 were omitted due to low factor loading values
(below 0.6). The results of measurement model fitness- after the omission of the items with low loadings- are
summarized in Table 8.

Table 8. Fit indices for measurement model
Fit Indices Result value
χ2 401.21
d.f. 206
P 0.000
χ2/d.f. 1.948
NNFI 0.921
CFI 0.930
RMSEA 0.067
RMSR 0.051
AGFI 0.805

As shown in Table 9, all the result values meet the recommended value. Having found a good model fit, the
validity of the scale can be assessed.

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Table 9. The loadings of the items
Question Items Corresponding variable Loadings
Q1 Belief 0.764
Q2 Belief 0.68
Q3 Belief 0.834
Q4 Belief 0.809
Q5 Belief 0.763
Q6 Belief 0.797
Q8 Belief 0.736
Q9 Belief 0.763
Q10 Belief 0.703
Q20 Motivation 0.727
Q21 Motivation 0.708
Q22 Motivation 0.716
Q23 Motivation 0.819
Q24 Motivation 0.825
Q25 Motivation 0.825
Q26 Motivation 0.749
Q27 Motivation 0.729
Q34 Satisfaction 0.699
Q35 Satisfaction 0.781
Q36 Satisfaction 0.817
Q37 Satisfaction 0.727
Q38 Satisfaction 0.709

As shown in Table 9, the loading values of items on their corresponding variables were found significant
(t-values > 1.96). Furthermore, as illustrated in Table 10, composite reliability (CR) and average variance
extracted (AVE) values for all the variables were found to be sufficiently high. Therefore, the convergent
validity of the scale was ensured. As shown in Table 10, it was also found that the AVE values of each variable
are higher than the square correlation values of the variables.

Table 10. The CR and AVE values
Square Correlations
Variables CR AVE
Beliefs Motivation Satisfaction
Beliefs 0.92 0.58 1
Motivation 0.91 0.58 0.29 1
Satisfaction 0.80 0.51 0.13 0.11 1

Considering the above results, it can be concluded that the scale has sufficient validity. The results of the
confirmatory factor analysis have been shown in Figure 1.

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.61 .50 .33 .31 .46 .34 .50 .47 .45
e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e8 e9 e10
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q8 Q9 Q10
1.00.71.95.82.87.84 .8..84857 .72 .46
1
Belief Q20 e20
.34
1
Q21 e21
.96
.38 .78 .37
1
Q22 e22
.83
.56
.30
.20 Motivatio1n.04Q23 1 e23
1.10 .32
1
1.Q0024 e24
.15 .95 .26
1
.85Q25 e25
.39
1
Q26 e26
.36
1
Q27 e27
.31
Satisfaction
1.00 1.17 1.10 1.02
1.02
Q38 Q37 Q36 Q35 Q34
1 1 1 1 1
.30 .28 .21 .23 .33
e38 e37 e36 e35 e34

Figure 1. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis

4.1.4 Testing the Hypotheses
Since there are two dependent variables in the model and this research aimed to examine the impact of
satisfaction on both dependent variables simultaneously, structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, using
AMOS 5 was utilized. First, the goodness of fit for the structural model was tested and as shown in Table 11, the
results meet the minimum required values. This indicates that the structural model has a good fit.

Table 11. Structural model fitness results
Fit Indices Result value
χ2 319.188
d.f. 199
P 0.000
χ2/d.f. 1.604
NNFI 0.950
CFI 0.957
RMSEA 0.054
AGFI 0.853

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The results of the SEM showed that there are empirically positive significant relationships (t > 2.56, P < 0.001)
between teachers’ job satisfaction and their students’ motivation and beliefs. Therefore, both the hypotheses of
this research rejected. The t-values and p-values of the relationships have been shown in Table 12. Moreover, the
results of testing the hypotheses are shown in Figure 2.

Table 12. T-Values and P-Values
Dependent variables Independent variable t-values P-values
Belief Satisfaction 5.102 0.001
Motivation Satisfaction 4.849 0.001

.60 .50 .33 .30 .46 .34 .50 .47 .46
e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e8 e9 e10
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q8 Q9 Q10
1.00.71 .95 .82 .86 .84 .83.87 .72
Belief
1
.69
e39
.76
.32
1
e38 Q38
1.00 .28
.35
.10
1 .93
e37 Q37 Satisfaction
.22 1.19
.09
1
e36 Q361.11
-.01 .25 1.01
1
e35 Q35
.11 .36 .59
1
e34 Q34
.48
1 e40
Motivation
.86 .971.00 1.06 1.00 .75 .70 .87
Q27 Q26 Q25 Q24 Q23 Q22 Q21 Q20
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
.33 .35 .24 .33 .33 .43 .40 .54
e27 e26 e25 e24 e23 e22 e21 e20
.16
.10 .18
.16

Figure 2. Results of the hypotheses
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4.2 Interviews Results (Qualitative Part)
This part reports the results obtained from the interviews with teachers teaching in language institutes in Isfahan.
Teachers were supposed to answer was their overall level of satisfaction with their job as a teacher. Responses
for the job satisfaction factor of responsibility, students’ direction of motivation were almost similar and lengthy.
The teachers felt very strongly on the questions and were quick to explain their thoughts and feelings. It is worth
mentioning that all the information gathered in this part were presented in an unbiased and complete manner.
RQ3) How do teachersperceive the overall level of their job satisfaction?
As the required data for thisquestion were gathered only through interview, teachers were supposed to answer
three questions when the interview was made. When the question on motivation to choose to be a teacher was
posed, they all answered very similar. The most important reasons for them were their interest in teaching,
learning English, their ability to teach, opportunity for getting familiar with new people from different parts of
society, and having a job. For example, Maziar started to teach what he learnt from a native speaker and tried to
put what he knew into practice. However, the first important reason he mentioned was that he loved teaching and
he really enjoyed doing that. However, the only reason that Shohreh brought was that she was interested in
teaching but not English, which little by little get interested in English. Or Nooshin who pretended to be a
teacher in front of the mirror when she was a child. Kiyan even would like to transfer his enthusiasm for teaching
to his students.
In answer to the question about the level of job satisfaction, putting their experience aside, the teachers claimed
that the level of job satisfaction is high, although they are not satisfied with financial matters. Among all the
interviewed teachers, only Shohreh and Mehrdad brought different factors up that in their opinion affect the level
of job satisfaction which are payment and atmosphere in workplace. In line with Shohreh, Mehrdad talked about
status in the society and students judgments. In line with students’ judgments, he said that students judge
according to their expectation; they do not know the methodology and he believed that thelanguage institutes
support students because the institutes want to make money. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with his job because
his co-workers in the language institute were important to him.
When they asked for discussing their perceptions of their colleagues’level of job satisfaction, interestingly all of
them assumed that their colleges are not satisfied with job. Asking for giving percentage, they give a high
percentage such as 70% of their colleagues. Maziar stated that while he is not sure about all of them, most of his
colleagues are just trying to get along with it. Shoherh also mentioned that they have some raises in their
payments each year although they are not satisfied. Generally, regarding job satisfaction the intervieweeswere
not satisfied at all. However, on the subject of helping other people with their needs, making them happy, making
them grow, the teachers were all satisfied.
5. Discussion
Consistent with claims supporting the assumption that teachers need encouragement and motivation as well as
students to do their job properly, the results of this study showed that behavior of learners which derived from
their beliefs (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1988) can affectteachers motivation, just similar to feedback.
Toshiko (2010) assumed that when teachers perceive their learners become skilled at what they are taught and
feel satisfy with their [students] motivation level and growing in learning, they feel satisfied and motivated. The
findings from this study further support Toshiko assumption. To be precise, teachers participated in the study
defined a teacher a successful one if s/he can motivate his or her students or have their appreciation. One of
teachers, Maziar, explicitly said that if his learners are like nagging all the time or if they are not satisfied, he
could get or feel the bad feedback. And it can greatly depress him and on the other hand if he understands
student are learning well; therefore, they feel satisfied with class and with what they are doing in the class. It will
affect the teacher a lot and s/he will have a lot of satisfaction.
Kennedy (1996) hypothesizes that teachers’ beliefs can form the way teachers behave. As Brown and McGannon
(1998) suggested, it is important to help trainees reflect on their beliefs because learners come to class and bring
their beliefs to a teacher education program that influence on what and how they learn (Richardson, 1996).
Accordingly, in response to the questions concerning learners’ beliefs, the satisfied teachers assumed that most of
their learners consider English important especially at higher levels, because they have plain goal to learn. Such
beliefs help them to do their best to teach material in the best way and use methods that make the material as
interesting as possible. In addition to beliefs, generally, teachers participated in the interviews enlightened that
they think their learners are enough motivated; although, it depends on their both level and goals to learn English.
They clarified that getting confused is not because learners think that English is difficult, but it is on account of
lack of knowledge or some psychological problems like shyness. They referred to three types of knowledge that
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